FBM Machining

[Joels]

Hello,

I admit i have not used this feature in Mastercam before but i am trying the FBM. I have Inventor 9 and Mastercam X4. If i create a cube in Inventor and tap a hole should i be able to have Mastercam open the IPT file and recognize the hole the same way that inventor does? or is there another way to do it?

 

Thanks

[Joels]

I know our software is old, does anybody use seperate software anymore or is Mastercam integrated into solidworks or inventer?

[Colin Gilchrist]

There are two separate modules in Mastercam: Feature Based Drilling, and Feature Based Milling.

 

FBM automates the creation of Mill Toolpaths for roughing and finishing your part. FBD automates the entire Drilling process.

 

I think the functionality you are asking about is in the FBD module.

 

Inside the FBD dialog box, there is tool that will analyze the solid and create a list of all the holes that are detected. It puts these holes in a feature list. You can then edit the list and select the type of finish process you want to perform on that feature (tap-ream-bore). FBM then generates the drilling operations, including spot drilling.

[Chris In-House Solutions]

Mastercam is integrated into SolidWorks.

 

I dont believe it will read your tapped hole information from Inventor but I havent ever tried it so dont hold me to that.

 

However if you created the tapped hole in SolidWorks and were using FBD in Mastercam it would recognize the hole as a taped hole from the Hole Whizard in SolidWorks and then pick the appropriate spot drill, tap drill and tap.

[Joels]

Chris, Colin,

You are both correct. I tried to bring in a 2009 inventor file into mastercam using different file formats and the transfer worked great but Mastercam didnt see the hole as even existing. I did check the box and it didnt show a hole on the list. I would assume if we upgraded to a newer version of Inventor and Mastercam they could be integrated? I know Solidworks does this and i did use it before about 3 years ago and it was great. Both of you would know this, what it the percentage of people using Solidworks and Inventor?

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

Fbm not worth an effort

I know I am stirring a pot but to anything more complex than a cube with a hole

ther are other efficient and fast ways to program the part.

[Chris In-House Solutions]

FBD (Feature Based Drilling) can be very powerful if set up properly.

 

For X4 and Inventor there is an addon provided by cnc software to view inventro files. Im not sure if it will work with inventor 9 but it maybe worth a try. This may allow FBD to read the hole data.

 

You can download this addon at the following website and maybe worth trying it to see if this is the solution to your problem.

 

http://www.mastercam.com/Support/Downloads/MastercamX4/Default.aspx

[K2csq7]

+1 Teh Bear